Muni He has the change to become a major star in golf and she took a major step in the right direction by winning the Symetra Tour's 2018 Prasco Charity Championship. The tournament, played in Cincinnati, Ohio, concluded on July 1.
He won comfortably, finishing four strokes ahead of runner-up Becca Huffer. He carded rounds of 65, 69 and 67, finishing at 15-under 201.
He, who is from China and whose nickname is Lily, is in her rookie year as a pro after spending two seasons on the University of Southern California golf team. In nine previous appearances on the Symetra Tour in 2018, Muni's previous best finish was a tie for seventh place. That was her only Top 10 until winning the Prasco Charity Championship.
He boasts a stellar pedigree in junior and amateur golf. She is also, as might guess from the photos, an amateur model. She has more than 140,000 followers on Instagram. And as her golf career heats up, expect her modeling career to heat up, too.
Should we say that Jeongeun Lee possesses quite a bit of ... six appeal?
If you follow women's golf and, specifically, check the scores of tournaments, then you have noticed something odd. In scores, Korean golfer Jeongeun Lee's name often includes the number "6." It appears in the scores as Jeongeun Lee6, for example. Or, sometimes, as Jeongeun6 Lee.
Here are two examples, screenshots of the USGA and LPGA leaderboards from the 2018 U.S. Women's Open, showing both versions:
What's up with that?
Have to admit, when I first noticed this I thought something was being lost in translation from the Korean. But no, it's just a six, and it's there at Jeongeun Lee's request.
The explanation is simple. When Lee first arrived on the Korean LPGA several years ago, she found five other Lees named Jeongeun already on tour. So she added the "6" to differentiate herself from the rest. Now you know.
Louise Ridderstrom won her first Symetra Tour trophy in grand style: by setting the course scoring record.
In fact Ridderstrom, from Sweden, posted a personal best competition score in the second round, then lowered that score in the final round.
In the end, she won by four strokes at the 2018 Valley Forge Invitation. Her scores were 69-65-69 for a total of 16-under 197. Ridderstrom birdied three of the final five holes, including the last.
“Winning is hard, but if it’s your turn, then it’s your turn. I was telling myself that all day,” Ridderström told SymetraTour.com. “My one and only goal today was to concentrate on myself and try to hit the best shot that I could possibly hit every single shot. It was just one shot at a time and I think I stuck pretty well to that.”
Louise turned pro following an NCAA golf career with UCLA that concluded in 2016. She majored in International Development Studies.
Her rookie year on the Symetra Tour was 2017, and Ridderstrom made eight cuts in 14 starts. So far in 2018, Louise has made a clear jump up in performance. In her two most-recent starts, she posted a tie for fifth place and now the win at the Valley Forge.
A couple swing videos that Ridderstrom has shared on social media:
Shi Yuting is an up-and-coming golf on Asian tours and just won a tournament on the China LPGA Tour (CLPGA) for the second consecutive year.
Shi won the 2018 Le Coq Sportif Beijing Ladies Classic, beating Keh Munchin of New Zealand in a playoff. Shi opened the tournament with a score of 73, then posted back-to-back 66s to finish at 11-under 205.
She also won the tournament in 2017, one of several titles Shi has won on the Chinese tour.
Shi herself was born in Japan but plays under the Chinese flag. In 2017, she was a rookie on the Japan LPGA Tour (JLPGA). She also has tournament appearances on the Thai LPGA and Ladies Asian golf tours.
And on the LPGA Tour, in a handful of events. Shi, who is 20 years old at the time of this writing, posted a pair of Top 60 finishes in LPGA Asian stops in 2016, when she was 18.
Still in the earliest stages of her career, Shi has developed a reputation as a fashion icon, both on and off the golf course.
What is Shotmakers? It's a new golf series coming to Golf Channel that was shot at Topgolf Las Vegas. In Shotmakers, nine teams - each consisting of one woman and one man - compete in shotmaking games at TopGolf. And, according to Golf Channel, "Shotmakers will feature the fun, social experience for which Topgolf is known, blending entertainment, golf and technology throughout the competition."
Shotmakers will air during the month of April 2018 on Golf Channel. Episode 1 is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET on Monday, April 9; episodes will air on Mondays and Tuesdays through the end of the month, seven in all.
Following is a look at the nine women golfers who appear in Shotmakers.
Tisha Alyn Abrea
A grad of Cal State Fullerton, Tisha has played mostly on the mini-tours and posted her first professional win on the NWGA Tour in 2016. She is 24 years old, from Murrieta, Calif., and is cofounder of the social media juggernaut Women With Drive.
Susana Benavides
The 27-year-old Benavides is from Cochabamba, Bolivia, and has the distinction of being the only golfer born in Bolivia to play on the LPGA Tour.
Nikki Bondura
She goes by "NikkiB" on social media and web, and Bondura is Abrea's cofounder of Women With Drive. Her lifestyle blog is popular online.
Christina Lecuyer
You might remember Christina from her appearance on another Golf Channel series, The Big Break. Now 35 and living in Arkansas, where she went to college, Lecuyer is described as a "professional corporate/charity golf host and media personality."
Victoria Lovelady
Victoria, aka "Vica," is a Brazilian who represented her country in the 2016 Olympics. She plays on the Symetra Tour and Ladies European Tour.
Kenzie O'Connell
Kenzie is a popular presence on social media and a golf instructor in Colorado. Like several other Shotmakers cast members, she works with the Women With Drive crew.
Hailey Ostrom
After winning in college at George Fox University in Oregon, Hailey is early into her career as a pro golfer and playing on mini-tours. She's currently based in Phoenix.
Chelsea Pezzola
Chelsea, 25 years old, played golf at the University of Michigan and is now based in Arizona, where she plays mini-tours and does corporate outings and pro-ams. She also recently started getting into broadcasting.
Tania Tare
Tania, age 29, is originally from New Zealand but is now based in the USA. And she has become Internet-famous for her remarkable trick-shot abilities. She can play, too, though: She holds the school record for low round at Florida International University with a 63.
Have you seen the "golf bowling" video that came out of Korea? A Korean LPGA golfer tees up a ball at the end of a bowling lane and then, using her driver, smacks the ball into the pins at the end of the lane. They all fall down — a strike! If you haven't seen it, here it is:
The golfer in the video is Minju Kim, who is a Class A LPGA teaching professional (with some competitive experience) in South Korea. She has at least some prominence in that country because she has a sponsorship deal with the Korean division of Fila Golf, part of the worldwide Fila Sports brand. In fact, it was Fila Golf for whom Minju Kim pulls off this trick shot. As you see near the end of the video, a Fila Golf message comes onscreen, making this video, essentially, an ad for Fila.
We take no position on the question of whether Minju actually pulled off this shot, or whether it might, instead, have been accomplished with good video editing. (Others have tried to look into that question and the best we can say is that nobody has proved it isn't real.)
But we do take a position on Minju Kim: She's definitely a golf babe!
